'Pot-bellied' Pigs Spotted Near
Club

Terje Johansen, surrounded by his six
students,
all from Ålesund, Norway.

Lots of 'Students of the Week' Too

Paris:- Thursday, 8. February 2001:- Today is
typical in two ways and atypical in another. It is a winter
day - what else would you expect for early February? - the
'strike of the week' is a flop, and today's Café
Metropole Club sunshine did not make its weekly update.

This means I may have to return my weather-oracle badge
to the society of independent weather-oracles, and I also
get a black spot beside my membership number. Two more of
these and I drop back into my old place in the
weather-idiots' club.

With the flop of the 'strike of the week,' my
métro ride to Châtelet is uneventful - until I
try to leave the métro by my regular exit. It is
taped shut with plastic bags - no doubt on account of the
rave reviews I gave to last week's 'total' strike.

But enough of this miserable grumbling - on to club
news!

At the beginning of today's meeting there is no 'club
news,' because only Patrick, the 'waiter of the week,' is
present. The grande salle in La Corona is about a quarter
full though - with people who have eaten lunch and look as
if it's time to doze off.

While I am busying myself with club-secretary rigamarole
- which includes trying to figure out the date -
which
the little window on my watch's face tells me when I
remember to look at it - a small herd of teenage
schoolgirls suddenly appears before me.

Eva Lee comes
to the club straight from finding out legal facts at the
nearby Mairie.

I am up and shaking hands with them one-by-one until the
last one turns out to be Terje Johansen, who turns out to
be their history teacher and leader for a week's worth of
school visit in Paris.

The whole gang of them are from Ålesund, Norway -
in town to check out the local history and culture - and as
soon as this club nonsense is over with they intend to
start in the nearby Samaritaine department store.

Ålesund, is on about the same latitude as
Anchorage, and since the club has a member from near there
- Chad Wagner - this latitude is not so unknown as
Greenland, which is about as far north too.

Terje tells me he visited Paris for the first time in
1969 and it was so cold he had to buy winter clothes at the
'puces' out at Saint-Ouen. I well remember the winter of
'69 too, but I thought it only happened in Munich. About
winter, Terje also tells me all Norwegian shipping tycoons
now live in Greece.

After all the soft drinks are consumed, the girls are
impatient for Paris' glories and we re-run through the
handshake routine again as they file out to begin their
search for great 50-percent off shopping adventures.

Before leaving, Terje also says he's sorry he's missed
the server-lady, Linda Thalman. He assures me Linda is
nearly as famous as the Café Metropole Club in
Norway's lower geographic third. For this, Ålesund is
clearly the 'City of the Week.'

Paul Vogel from Barrington near Chicago and Henry Vogel
from Houston, Texas, must crisscross with the exiting girls
because they're sitting where I've left the rest of the
club's members - who now include Marilyn
Burke, Charles Eitel and Paul Rupert, who close-reading
readers will remember as the golfing kingpin of 'ChezVous' from a couple of
weeks ago.

While Paul Vogel knows where his
Citroën parts will be from, Paul Rupert is uncertain
about his next meal.

The Vogels, Paul and Henry, have arrived in Paris this
morning in order to stock up on spare parts for Paul's
mini-fleet of old Citroën cars, at the
Rétromobile old-car and spare parts salon which
begins tomorrow.

To do this in style they have rented the iggest car
Citroën has and have found an extremely rare and large
parking space for it near their hotel, all since arriving
in Paris today and escaping from the airport.